


Chemistry Class

by findmeinthevoid



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: I'm Sorry, Multi, also, because why not, but bear with me, i don't know what im doing yet, i headcanon marc writes poetry, i still can't get over that it's c a n o n, i'm weak for this ship, ill add tags as the story progresses, just read it, oh look i started another story, pray i dont abandon this one, snis and plot bunnies plague me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-06-19 01:15:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15499041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/findmeinthevoid/pseuds/findmeinthevoid
Summary: In which a science teacher discovers how much more her job involves than academia, and two boys need some help understanding basic concepts.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> avnvfnskgn,b rip all my other ships (Lukaniel is still beating in my heart but damn Chlonath and Adrinath have been left to bite the DUST ;-;)
> 
> this idea is crack but it's less crack than my other post-Reverser one, also all my ideas are crack get on with the program
> 
> also Feri confirmed Marc goes by male pronouns on Twitter so I'm going with that
> 
> also, also, I may have self-projected onto Marc just a *tiny* bit.

Marc sat idle, resting his chin on his forearm on the desktop while his fellow classmates frenzied to finish the same sheet that currently lay face-down beside him. For some reason, he was consistently the first one to finish tests, every, single, damned, time. It wasn't even that he was hurrying. He took as long as he could answering every question to the best of his ability until he couldn't bear to check over his answers again. And he didn't fail, either. The others took almost twice as long but he usually managed an easy 80%, at least.

Right now he was just about dozing off, pencil streaking stray lines on the piece of scrap paper pinned under his forearm. He snatched the paper up to read its major contents over again, sighing and replacing it in defeat. A dozen or so insignias of  _ N. K. + M. A. _ formed something of a border, surrounding what was at least half-intended as a poem venting his feelings as of late. 

Marc liked poetry. As sappy as others made it seem, there was a certain relief in throwing random words related to his thoughts and emotions on paper and seeing them, cumulatively, form something deep and impacting.  _ Like art. _ Marc banished the thought from his mind and unconsciously doodled a small heart around one of the initials, stopping himself when he caught on. Of course, unlike art that was meant to convey a concept and share with others, Marc would be damned if this piece of paper didn't end up directly in a fire. Which was exactly where he planned to take it the moment they were released from this…

“Time's up, turn your papers over and send them to the front!”

Madame Mendeleiev’s commanding voice cut through the scratching of pencils and Marc couldn't have been more thankful. Ignoring the whispered protests of anxious classmates, he swung his bag over his shoulder and stood up after handing his test to the girl in the desk in front of him, crumpling his own personal sheet into an inconspicuous ball to destroy later. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to get through the door before he heard the teacher calling after him specifically. He turned around.

“What do you think you're leaving with that paper?!” she asked, borderline scandalized. “Cheating is not limited to the person who copies off of another. Who are you planning to give those answers to?”

“These aren't answers,” he explained. “I was just doodling some stuff in my spare time- I can't really put this in the recycle bin cause someone might find it…” he trailed off mumbling.

Mme Mendeleiev looked skeptical. 

“I'll dispose of it myself, then,” she assured him. “Just to make sure you're not sharing responses with the other class.” She thrust out a hand expectantly.

Marc hesitated.

“You'll make sure it's properly destroyed and nobody finds it, right?” he asked reluctantly.

She nodded and he handed it over, then turned to leave. 

***

Of course, humans are very inclined to surrender to the force of curiosity and no sooner had the classroom been evacuated after the last class of the day that the science and math teacher at Collège Françoise Dupont got to work at carefully uncrumpling this oh-so-intriguing piece of scrap paper. After five minutes of avoiding any tears while unwrapping, she found a creased sheet of paper covered in hearts, a repeating pattern of initials, and several crossed-out lines. The lines were beyond illegible, but the multiple occurrences of  _ N. K. + M. A.  _ surrounded by hearts piqued her curiosity even more.

The teachers would certainly have something interesting to discuss at lunch hour tomorrow...


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lol I'm back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry i took forever to update. hopefully the next one will be more timely, but i haven't really had the chance to write this lately.
> 
> enjoy some marcaniel progress as well as some pop culture references

Nathaniel Kurtzberg would not be unique or strange as a school-attending teenager in hating his schedule. This Tuesday's, in particular.

Unfortunately for him, due to the understaffed nature of Collège Françoise Dupont, Mme Mendeleiev instructed them in both Science and Mathematics. And it just so happened that they had both on Tuesdays. So Mme Mendeleiev took the advice that no one in the class offered to change the Math block into a second period of Science.

Which was all well and good if you're name was Max Kanté and you happened to be a teen  _ genius _ who probably learned this year's entire curriculum in kindergarten. But if your name was Nathaniel Kurtzberg and you already had something of a history with the teacher, it was not such a pleasant reality.

Anyway, what sucks most about this Tuesday in particular was that Madame gave them a science test in the first period, and had it marked and returned to them second period. Not even a night in between to recover from writing the test and then preparing for the mark- nope, all they had was lunch hour to stress out about their possible results.

Come last period of the day, Nathaniel was already rather distracted. He was two panels away from finishing his latest comic book collaboration with Marc, and as soon as that minute hand hit twelve, he'd be out of here and off to finish it. The only obstacle between him and outside was the science classroom door and a piece of paper with a big red-

Nathaniel froze. Let's rewind a bit.

Nathaniel was daydreaming about exactly how he was going to draw that final scene, the page with Marc’s script hidden under his textbook so he could slip it out and reread it from time to time. Then Mme Mendeleiev’s harsh voice called “Nathaniel!” and he stepped up, still somewhat in a daze. He went back to his desk, not really minding what was on the page (he’d never achieve an A, but a mid-B wouldn't be awful) until he finally chanced a lazy look at the page and his entire train of thought  _ crashed. _

D.

His eye widened so quickly and so dramatically it was comedic. Alix had glanced back to see his reaction to his own mark, then stared a bit longer in concern. But Nathaniel didn't see her. He didn't see anything other than the red letter adorning the corner of his page.

The fact that Madame hadn't even called him up to give him a lecture and a notice for a parent meeting didn't help knock him back to reality. Alix couldn't just get up and slap some sense back into him, so she did the most she could and glanced back at him now and again- though it wasn’t much use because his face was frozen in the same shocked expression until the bell went.

Then Madame ushered them all out of the room, slamming the door after Rose’s tearful form had exited.

Alix had to literally drag Nathaniel to the nearest cafe to revive him with iced coffee. Even so, the only words he managed in between sips forced by his friend were: “My...parents...will…” before he properly freaked out. Alix pro-actively stuffed the straw between his lips and induced a brain freeze before he started sputtering nonsense. Nathaniel choked.

Alix didn't let him get even a word in until he was lying on his own bed while she settled on the ground and allowed him to freak. He promptly burst into tears and went off on a long rant about how dead he was (from his panicked energeticness, he was indeed very much alive), how his parents were going to react (if they actually did the things Nathaniel predicted, they'd be better serial killers than parents), how his future was ruined (it was really only a midterm exam...okay that  _ was _ kind of major…), and, finally, that Marc was due over in a half hour. Since the beginning of this whole sob-fest.

Marc rang the doorbell a comically coincidental three seconds after this announcement.

Alix now had some options:

  1. She could open the door and immediately run out, letting Marc see Nathaniel at his worst. Nathaniel would probably murder her for it, but it would be a chance to let the comic book partners engage in some of that “hurt/comfort” stuff that always happened in those romance movies she didn't watch. Marinette _had_ been pushing her to get them closer together lately.
  2. She could decline Marc entry and let him know this wasn't the best time, or,
  3. She could let Marc in and stay there, nullifying any possible romantic action, but maybe it was better to be safe than sorry.



It turned out to be a wise decision to choose option 3 (which ended up kind of overlapping with option 1, anyways) because the first thing Marc asked the pitiful lump on the bed was: “So how was that science test?” Alix deeply wished he had waited to see Nathaniel's smudged eyeliner raccoon eyes and ongoing hysterical meltdown before saying that, because the redhead renewed his despair and went off on  _ another _ rant about the horrible implications of this untimely failure.

Marc at least had the decency to look guilty for mentioning the test, attempting to change the topic multiple times in vain. In the end, they decided to make it a bit of a pity party, even before Marc got his own results back. Alix found a good store of chocolate in Nathaniel's junk food stash and they all binged on it while intensifying their misery by watching the  _ Avengers: Infinity War _ dvd Nathaniel had just recently bought (okay, but if Alix had thought that this post-science test misery was dramatic, it was  _ nothing _ compared to his post-“leaving the cinema after watching  _ Infinity War _ ” angst. He mourned a different  _ Thanos _ -ed character every day until  _ all _ of them had been paid tribute to.)

It was a great way to home that night in the lowest mood possible. A thunderstorm breaking out halfway to the Louvre and the pink-haired girl was more than ready to star in an  _ Evanescence _ music video.

Overall, though, today had several positive outcomes despite its general hopelessness. Mme Mendeleiev had been rather antsy earlier, almost as eager for class to be over as they were, for some reason; so much so that she had forgotten to summon Nathaniel's parents for a meeting yet. So Nathaniel didn't really have to worry about his parents just yet (but  _ would he listen? _ )

The other good thing was that Alix now had a considerable album of photos on her phone, secretly taken during the whole incident. Throughout the course of the afternoon, as documented by the pictures, Marc had managed to move closer and closer into Nathaniel's personal space, to the point that they were comfortably sitting in a position that resembled a hug by the first post-credits scene of the movie.

Marinette was going to freak when she saw the pictures. Not that Alix was going to show her them yet. She'd dealt with enough freaking out for this week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos really motivate me to continue, so be generous with those buttons down there! ;))


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a faster update o-o

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so just so know, school has started again for me so i may or may not be able to write as much
> 
> but i did write this, so hooray!

Nathaniel Kurtzberg walked into homeroom more or less normal. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked half-dead, but his expression was almost always one of total disinterest and boredom in class anyways, so Alix was thankful. He had also apparently lost all recollection of the events of yesterday afternoon, which was a bit of an inconvenience because Alix couldn’t remind him of his over-dramatization last night without him coolly denying it.

“Better?” she hissed sarcastically before he could even get to his seat.

“I dunno, you tell me,” he rolled his eyes with equal sarcasm. “I barely got any sleep cause I was up all night watching theories on how  _ Avengers 4 _ is gonna end...”

“Please don’t go over-the-top mourning them again,” she said.

“I wasn’t going to,” he mumbled, yawning. “Thank goodness Madame didn’t call my parents last night. My mom’s mad enough as is that I was on my phone all night even after she told me to turn the computer off.”

“Be thankful we don’t have science today,” she reminded.

“You have no idea,” he replied, stalking over to the back and promptly collapsing into his seat.

Alix shrugged as he took less than six seconds to fall asleep and turned to the front of the class where Mme Bustier was now taking attendance.

***

All of the teachers at Françoise Dupont had developed a bond with their homeroom students to some extent, but Caline went out of her way to go above and beyond in making her class’ academia a memorable one. Olga dismissed it as a dream of an amateur teacher fueled by youth and passion, while Bob shared her philosophy with his smaller group of art room participants. Especially since her class had one of the highest concentrations of formerly akumatized individuals, she did her best to reach out to all of them and ensure they were all in the best circumstances she could help. And in terms of practical use, she could provide valuable input in school cases because she knew each of the students and their respective personalities so well.

Given all this, she wouldn’t have been surprised if the principal had sought her out for her view on a particular situation. When Madame Mendeleiev arrived in the staff room demanding an informal impromptu meeting at lunch hour, though, she was more than a little taken aback.

“Is it about the test results? Come on, Olga, give the kids a break, will ya? They’re in junior high, not university, the poor things,” Bob sighed.

“This isn’t about the test marks, although I do have some things to address concerning those, too, now that you mention it,” she frowned. “But, no. I actually discovered something quite interesting in one of my last classes the other day, something I’d like to discuss with you all.”

“You have my interest,” Caline offered.

“Go on,” Bob agreed.

Olga’s expression remained impassive as she dug around in her bag and finally pulled out her wallet. Caline and Bob looked on in bafflement (a cheque???) until she extracted a carefully folded piece of paper from within and spread it out onto the table. It appeared to be a photocopy of a student’s (note?) sheet, although the doodles all around and in between made more than obvious the level of concentration that said student had had while writing this. In fact, looking more carefully, they didn’t look that much like notes, either. Caline voiced this.

“Did you pick a student’s notes out of the trash can? What is this?” she asked.

Her colleague shook her head.

“A certain student’s scrap sheet of paper during yesterday’s exam,” she explained. “The original copy has been discarded as per the student’s request, but it was far too intriguing to let go of altogether, so  _ voila. _ ”

“I don’t know, does it really seem right to be keeping something they asked you to throw away?” Bob asked.

“Who cares, we have the authority to search them, this falls under that, too,” she dismissed. “But are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“That it looks like the seeds of another budding romance,” Caline analyzed it with recognition.

“Precisely,” Olga finished with a total poker face. “I mean, I wasn’t sure, but I figured just as much.”

Caline sighed.

“Who, then? I mean, I can’t imagine you brought this our attention for any other reason than to discuss who it concerns,” Bob said.

“Exactly,” Olga confirmed.

“I’m guessing you already know of one of them,” Caline said, taking a sip from her coffee.

Olga hesitated for only a moment before blurting “Marc Anciel”. Caline raised an eyebrow but Bob snatched up the paper immediately and broke into a grin.

“Well I’d had my suspicions for some time, but this… you’re right, Olga, this really is something very interesting...”

“You figured the other one out, then,” Caline noted calmly. “I didn’t have a chance to look at it myself. Is it one of mine?”

“It is indeed,” he smiled.

“Who is it? Give it back, I didn’t get to properly look at it myself last night, either,” Olga insisted, snatching it away.

“It’s only obvious,” Caline shrugged. “Nathaniel Kurtzberg has a secret admirer.”

Olga almost dropped her sheet and spit out the coffee that wasn’t in her mouth, expression turning sour.

“Well, then,” she said awkwardly, staring at the paper as if seeing it in a new light, “I suppose this changes things, doesn’t it...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did you like it? pls comment and hit that kudos button if you haven't already.
> 
> I also accept constructive criticism :)
> 
> thank you for reading and have a great day :DDD


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madame Medeleiev is not smooth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> new episodes = sudden flash of motinspiration (motivating inspiration or at least motivation+inpiration idek okay) = update (about time, too)

_(13:24)_ **Alix:** yo

 _(13:24)_ **Alix:** psst

 _(13:25)_ **Alix:** wake up sleepyhead

_ (13:27) _ **Nathaniel:** i wasnt sleeping

_(13:27)_ **Nathaniel:** why are you texting me in class?

 _(13:28)_ **Alix:** why is your head down then

 _(13:29)_ **Nathaniel:** the exhastion of livig and woes of existence cause my head to hang heavy as i mourn the fleeting meaning of life

 _(13:29)_ **Nathaniel:** i cant fall asleep caus my head hurtssss

 _(13:35)_ **Alix:** jeez i didnt need the whole poetic spel

 _(13:35)_ **Alix:** just wondering if you jnew why mme keeps staring at yu

 _(13:36)_ **Nathaniel:** idk maybe cause youre texting me in class stop it

 _(13:37)_ **Alix:** she keeps looking right at uo

 _(13:37)_ **Alix:** **you

 _(13:38)_ **Nathaniel:** o sht u rite

 _(13:38)_ **Alix:** -_-

 

Nathaniel had barely taken a peek above his desktop before slamming his head (rather painfully) back down again. Madame really was staring at him, or maybe it just so happened that her gaze coincidentally fell upon him the moment he decided to look up. He kept his head down and counted to five, locking his phone just in case. At five, he barely lifted his face from the wood, squinted through his hair, and looked back down. Then he very slowly forced himself up from the desktop and stared Mme Mendeleiev straight in the eye.  _ Dammit. _ Nathaniel subtly tore his gaze away and stared innocently at his textbook, glancing up every so often to see if she was still watching him.

Madame wasn’t even being subtle about it. Nathaniel wished she would look away for longer than a totally-inconspicuous ten seconds so he could text Alix what was going on in his mind, but for now he supposed it would have to stay in his mind to stay on the safe side. There could be several reasons that the teacher was rather obviously staring at him this afternoon’s math lesson, not all of which including the following:

  1. He was paranoid and imagining it. So was Alix.
  2. Madame had finally remembered his horrendous exam mark and was watching him very carefully to probably find some more evidence to use against him at the parent-teacher meeting that would doubtlessly be occurring this evening.
  3. She caught him texting in class, or
  4. She was just suddenly very interested in observing his behaviour this particular class.



Nathaniel didn’t know. He didn’t really care, either, but it was getting annoying and slightly unnerving to have someone staring at him like that. The rest of the class didn’t notice, which was something of a relief (to be fair, they were probably all too busy dozing off to pay attention) but  _ would she please have the decency to at least be open about it? _

Unfortunately for him, she didn’t address him until about ten minutes later, which meant ten minutes of stressing out under her piercing gaze more than he needed.

“Nathaniel,” she called out suddenly, as if he hadn’t been anxiously watching her every movement already.

“ _ Yes? _ ” he whispered meekly, then cleared his throat. “Yes?”

“Let’s say Marinette has a square flower garden. The ratio of camellias to hydrangeas is 1:3, and the ratio of hydrangeas to tulips is 3:5. Given that she waters the garden every morning and picks 10 flowers every week, on which day next week will she give you a rose?”

Nathaniel stared. The rest of the class also stared, because if Nathaniel didn’t get this question right, it would get passed on to some other unlucky victim, and no one wanted to be put on the spot with no idea of what was going on. Marinette in particular looked caught off-guard at the mention of her own name. That wasn’t helping Nathaniel, though. Actually, for once, even Max looked confused. He frowned at the teacher for a moment before pulling out his calculator and starting to punch in some numbers.

“Um, sorry,  _ what? _ ” he asked, completely and utterly confused.

“You heard me, I’m not going to repeat myself. Given the set of information, how long will you have to wait for our lovely Marinette to present you with a rose?” she asked, giving an encouraging smile that looked more threatening than anything else.

“Marinette?” he repeated, still baffled. “What?”

Mme Mendeleiev’s expression soured slightly, but she perked up immediately.

“Wait, Madame, I have a question,” Max cut in, raising his hand. “You said the flowe-”

“No worries, Max, I was just testing Nathaniel to see if he was paying attention after all,” she waved off, and Nathaniel’s body temperature dropped about five degrees. “Clearly he wasn’t. Tell me, boy, do you ever take your nose out of that sketchbook of yours and  _ study _ once in a while?” she asked. Nathaniel flushed.

“I  _ do, _ ” he mumbled quietly, cursing the subject in front of his classmates. Chloe looked right about ready to deliver a remark, as if being put on the spot wasn’t bad enough already.

Madame watched him, unconvinced. She walked up to him and Nathaniel groaned inwardly, preparing for his fate.

“Sketchbook, please,” she demanded, hand out expectantly. Nathaniel paled, staring into the worn wood of his desktop in silent horror.  _ Why, why, whyyyyyyyyy, _ was all he could think right now.

“I asked for your sketchbook, Nathaniel,” she repeated. 

The rest of the class watched with bated breath as he reluctantly reached for his bag and carefully extracted his prized possession and dropped it in the teacher’s hand. She nodded and immediately opened it, flipping through the entirety of its contents in about 15 seconds. Her smile dropped at the corners and turned to a scowl as she flipped through again, then snapped it shut and all but threw it back down in front of Nathaniel.

Without another word, she strode up to the front of the room, stood still with her back to the class for a solid ten seconds, then turned around, face impassively neutral.

“Homework is to read chapter 5 and answer the related questions for exercises 1 through 4. I trust you can do that on your own,” was all she said before stalking out of the room, probably to get a coffee from the staff room or something.

The class immediately burst into quiet chatter and Alix slipped out from her seat to quickly join Nathaniel at his own.

“What was  _ that _ all about?” she asked, concerned.

“I have no idea,” he answered, equally nonplussed, then slapped a hand to his forehead and squeezed. “And to be honest this headache is too bad for me to think about it, anyways.”

“Well then maybe you shouldn’t have been up all night on your phone after me and Marc took forever to calm you down,” Alix reminded, resisting the impulse to say “your boyfriend” instead.  _ Not yet. _

“ _ Mhmm? _ ” Nathaniel hummed, nodding along with his head in his arms. “I’m going to actually try and fall asleep now,” he informed her.

“Sweet dreams,” she sighed, patting his head gently, then added in an undertone,  _ “this is a nightmare...” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes that was totally a reference to today's episode FINALLY some new content wow that was unexpected dang ;O;
> 
> next time, we'll finally find out what the teacher's deal is and hopefully get back to Marc. It's been a lil while since we've heard from the smol gay bean uwu


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AN

is anyone. . .even. . .reading this, still?

im kind of running low on inspiration lately and ive been mostly dead but ehh

hopefully i dont end up abandoning this, but writer's block is a damned curse, yo. . .

*looks off into the distance*

do you guys want this continued?


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skin? clear.  
> life? blessed.  
> existence? fulfilled.  
> marcnath? cANoN.  
> writer's block? cUrED.  
> story? updated!  
> hotel? trivago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all so much for your lovely and wonderful comments last chapter, they really made my day.
> 
> and also bless the Frozer episode for giving us 0.7 seconds of blessed, blessed math/marcnath/nathmarc/CALL IR WHATEVER YOU WANT, DANG IT!!!

_ 95%. _

Marc was torn between relief and overwhelming guilt that he hadn't bombed this test. After Nathaniel's hysterical meltdown, it was probably a better idea not to mention anything about science class to him at all in the foreseeable future. Marc could hardly believe it himself.

It was after he'd gone through the entire paper, front to back, that he looked up and realized Madame had probably been watching him the whole time. Or staring through him. He couldn't tell from here, but the immediate thought that came to mind was yesterday's incident with the piece of paper. Surely she had honored his request and disposed of it… or what if she hadn't and saw what it said and misinterpreted it…

The bell went and Marc decided it better to dismiss the thought and not drive himself up a wall jumping to conclusions. He followed the rest of his class as they filed out of the classroom, reminding himself that Mme Mendeleiev was an honorable person he could trust. Okay, maybe the  _ honorable  _ was debatable, given the stories he'd heard about her from Mme Bustier’s class, but personally, she hadn't given him any reason to doubt her.

So he left the room hoping for the best, and Madame collected her things and all but ran outside after them.

***

Nathaniel didn't mention the test at all when Marc sat down next to him in Room 33 that afternoon, and Alix probably would have killed him if he had, so Marc decided to get right to the comic book discussion without asking him about his day. In fact, Nathaniel didn't say anything to acknowledge that Marc had arrived at all, until Alix shushed the latter and gestured to the redhead’s form, faceplanting into the desktop.

“He has a headache,” she rolled her eyes. “M. Ross is letting him take a break today.”

Marc nodded in understanding and quietly sat down next to Nath, opening his notebook. He cast a glance at Nathaniel's sketchbook, then quickly tore his gaze away. If Nathaniel was trying to sleep, it was probably a better idea to wait until he was up and then ask him if he had any ideas. Usually he'd have a sketch or concept drawn in his sketchbook from earlier, but Marc didn't have the guts to take a look at it without Nathaniel's express permission.

He sighed and lifted his pencil to his own page, completely void of ideas. He frowned at the blank paper, searching his mind for anything, even a shred of inspiration that he could start something on, then glanced at the redhead to his left. Marc let a subtle smile form on his face and got to work.

He didn't even know how long he'd been scribbling away until he sensed movement in the edge of his peripheral vision and looked up to see Nathaniel groggily looking at him. Nathaniel blinked.

“Oh hi, Marc,” he said, rubbing at his eyes. “I didn't realize you were here.”

“Yeah, um, Alix told me you had a headache so I didn't want to disturb you,” Marc explained softly. “Sorry.”

“It's fine,” Nathaniel shook his head. “I like doing comic books with you. Next time don't worry about waking me up,” he assured him.

“I, um, okay,” Marc nodded, flushing slightly. “I was just wondering if you had any ideas for our next comic.”

Nathaniel suppressed a yawn behind his hand and reached for his sketchbook. He flipped through it until he came to the last non-blank page and frowned.

“Hm, I don't think I got the chance to come up with anything lately,” he said. “Sorry about that.”

“It's fine,” Marc said quickly. “Your health is more important than a comic.”

“Yeah, but is it more important than my marks?” Nathaniel asked, stretching. Marc froze.

“Uh…?” he looked back at Alix, wondering what to say. She was looking at Nath in annoyance. 

“Don't let Mme Mendeleiev bring you down, dang it!” she all but snapped.

“Wh- what happened?” Marc asked carefully.

“Madame got annoyed at him in math today because he couldn't solve this ridiculous question,” Alix explained. “Besides, haven't you always wanted to be a comic book artist? Who needs maths for that?” she asked.

“My parents want me to be a doctor,” he muttered under his breath.

If looks could kill, Nathaniel would be six feet under right now, victim of the daggers Alix was glaring at him right now.

“Besides,” he shrugged, “I'm not even that good, anyways. Even Mme Mendeleiev said so.”

“When did she say that?” Marc asked at the same time Alix countered “No she didn't!”

“Okay, she didn't  _ say _ it, per se, but did you see her reaction when she saw my sketchbook?!” Nath burst out. “My future is as dark as my intelligence…” he groaned.

“I don't think you should let someone like Mme Mendeleiev bring you down and make you stop loving what you love,” Marc offered. “You're crazy talented, why would I get myself akumatized just to work together with you?” he pointed out.

Nathaniel and Alix both looked at him in shock.

“Damn, sorry, Marc,” Nathaniel mumbled quietly. “I didn't realize I-”

“What?” Marc asked, confused. “Is it something I said…?”

“You mentioned your akumatization…” Alix said softly.

“Yeah?” Marc asked.

Nathaniel and Alix were both looking at him with utmost disbelief.

“Nevermind,” Nathaniel shook his head.

“Hey, half the city has been akumatized at this rate...it's not something to be ashamed of at this point,  _ is it _ ?”

“I guess back when I was akumatized it was less of a common thing,” Alix shrugged. Nathaniel nodded.

“And yours was kind of my fault, so…” Nathaniel trailed off.

“It wasn't one of our best days, for either of us,” Marc said. “So I don't think it's fair to pin the blame on anyone. Plus, we ended up using our akumasonas as our own protagonists in the end, didn't we?” 

“I just didn't think you'd be so ready to talk about the actual incident, outside of our comic, is all,” Nathaniel said. “I never really did apologize…”

“You're forgiven,” Marc assured him, voice fading back to a mumble.

“Hey kids, everything okay?” M. Ross suddenly appeared behind the three.

“We're fine, Nathaniel just wasn't feeling so great,” Alix waved off. “I'll go back to my own work, now,” she informed them, and left to do so.

“Well if that's all, you two are still working together today, right?”

“Definitely,” Nathaniel assured him. “We were just about to discuss our idea for the next comic,” he said.

“Sounds good,” M. Ross agreed. “And just one thing, both of you. Being an artist of any kind in the world is hard, and you are going to hit a lot of obstacles. But even when the world brings you down, there's always someone who tells you to get back up. When you find that someone,  _ never let them go _ ,” he whispered to them like he was telling a secret.

Marc and Nathaniel nodded seriously. 

“I'll leave you to your own, then,” he patted them on the back and retreated to his own makeshift teacher's desk.

“ _ Oh, Olga, _ ” he sighed to himself. “ _ What are you thinking? _ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again, thank you all so much for your continued support. I have no words for how much all your comments mean to me bshuzhsh OTL


	7. pls help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> authors note

hey guys (who are still with me at this point i salute you for sticking by me thus far)

i've rewritten the start of this next chapter at least 4 times and i've hit a bit of a bump where i'm not sure what to do or where to go, so im asking you this now

 

is there anything you want to see in this fic? i feel like im running out of inspiration and i kind of really need your help. anything at all you'd like to see, any thoughts or ideas or reviews would be highly appreciated!

 

thank you for sticking with me and i really appreciate all you support! im super sorry for not updating in forever but this is really kkind of a block so i hope y'all dont mind too much uwu

 

stay amazing!!!!

**Author's Note:**

> please comment/leave kudos if you enjoyed (it really motivates me to continue)
> 
> THANK YOU FOR READING!!!
> 
> *also you can find me on tumblr @findmeinthevoid or @writing-from-the-void*


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